Healthwatch Birmingham’s response to Birmingham City Council’s draft strategy for increasing levels of physical exercise in the city.

15/01/2024
By Healthwatch Birmingham
Consultations 2024

We expressed our support for the main principles and priorities in the strategy, emphasising the importance of extensive links between healthcare systems in Birmingham and physical activity partners across the city.

Principles

  1. Implement a whole system approach to physical activity in Birmingham.
  2. Provide senior level commitment to embed physical activity in policy to ensure multiple outcomes are met around health, climate change, air quality through strong strategic collaboration.
  3. Take a life course approach and focus on the unmet needs using data,
    intelligence and insight to focus on geographies and communities where inequalities exist.
  4. Adopt a community centred approach and empower local people to lead, embedding the voice and influence of local people across the system.
  5. Focus on early help and prevention and ensure interventions are tailored and person-centred.
  6. Develop local, accessible activity opportunities, built on local community
    assets.
  7. Support a more sustainable, strategic, and joined up approach to funding opportunities.

Priorities

  1. Active People: By creating and promoting access to physical activity
    opportunities taking a life course approach across multiple settings, we will enable more people to engage in regular activity.
  2. Active Environments: By creating and protecting the places and spaces that promote and engage people of all ages and abilities in activity we will enable more people to engage in regular activity.
  3. Active Society: By changing how we talk about physical activity across the city, building insight and evidence into policy, commissioning, planning decisions and communication messages and marketing campaigns we will enable more people to engage in regular activity.
  4. Active Systems: By creating a more connected system and strengthening our local leadership, governance, partnerships and workforce capabilities we will enable more people to engage in regular activity.
  5. Closing the Gap: By continuing to develop a better understanding of local barriers and enablers to increase activity across the city and ensure we focus on the least active groups as identified in the Physical Activity Needs Assessment we will enable more people to engage in regular activity.

Creating an Active Birmingham Download File (pdf 168.34 KB)

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